


Everything, Everything, Everything

by generalvogel



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Artists, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fluff, M/M, Photography
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-28
Updated: 2016-10-31
Packaged: 2018-08-27 14:38:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8405533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/generalvogel/pseuds/generalvogel
Summary: Keith works the late shift in a run-down shop by himself. Lance is a freelance photographer. After buying a bunch of unusual items, Keith can’t help but wonder more about this boy who always shows up in his life when no one else does.





	1. The First Night

**Author's Note:**

> So I was originally going to make these chapters long, but that just wasn't working out so we're going to have a nice short and sweet chapter for now. They'll probably get longer in the future once the relationship between these two begins to grow. I also tend to use a lot of explicit language in my fics so I tagged this as mature for now. Maybe I'll include smut later? We'll see.  
> Anyway, my first Voltron fic woo hoo! I actually wrote an outline for this so it should be good, I promise. You can find my over on tumblr at generalvogel or tag this as "fic:everythingvoltron" if you enjoyed this fic (which I hope you do!).

Keith worked the late shift at Galra’s, a shitty run-down corner store located right on the outskirts of town. Flies buzzed at the florescent lights that would flicker on and off and music played faintly through the rusted speakers of an analogue radio set on the counter. The shop was dead and has been for hours now. Not many people came in at this time, which is why Keith always took these shifts. Most people would head over to Altea, a wider-known multi-purpose store that didn’t have moldy food corroding the shelves. It was also closer to the center of the city, which made it way more convenient to get to. If anything, the occasional homeless person would wander in or tourists that refused to use a GPS would grumble as they grabbed water or more supplies for their journey to wherever. He never saw the same person twice, so it didn’t matter if he greeted a customer coming through the door. His job simply was to scan an item, throw some change down, rinse, and repeat. 

The clock changed to 11:49 PM. Keith browsed through old magazines and books that were left behind the desk, Billy Joel’s “Vienna” playing in the background. As he hummed along to the melody, the loud popping of a car engine began to progressively grow closer until the bright headlights illuminated through the windows.  _ Great _ . The car was an older model, probably from the early 90s, maybe worse. He was half expecting to see a balding drunkard step out of the hazard that was the car, so he was shocked to see a young man about his age jump out. He was tall and lanky, his brown hair a tangled mess from being whipped by the brisk wind. Keith watched as he yanked the door opened and ran to the aisle that held coffee related products.  _ Probably just a student on a road trip or something _ , he thought, his attention drifting back to his reading. However, he couldn’t help but gaze at the boy rummaging through the stock, making a  _ huge mess _ that Keith would have to clean up. 

“Hey.” The boy looked over at Keith who was somewhat glaring at him from behind the counter. “I have to clean that up, you know.”

“Oh! I’m sorry, man,” the boy picked up his armful of items off the floor and carried them over the register. It was just a bunch of instant coffee packages and Vitamin C powder. “I’m just in a rush to get these back to my place.”

Keith gave him a questioning look.  _ What in the world could this guy be doing with all of this? _ He haphazardly scanned the peculiar items of choice and put them all in two separate white bags. “That’ll be $17.50,” he said, looking back up at the boy. He scrambled for his wallet, pulling out a $20 and giving it to Keith. Their hands brushed together as Keith grabbed the money, sending a weird sensation through his nerves. As he opened the register for change, the boy grabbed the bags on the counter and started to move for the door.

“What about your--”

“Keep the change!” The boy smiled back. And then he was gone. Yet Keith couldn’t help but look back at the tank of a car to see the boy looking back at him, getting in, and driving off, the engine roaring to life as it popped into the distance.  And there he was at midnight in the middle of a shitty run-down corner store with two dollars in one hand and tingling nerves on the other. With an exasperated sigh, he set the change on the counter, walked over to where the boy was trying to recreate the next World War, and began to clean.


	2. The Next Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There was two things on Keith’s mind now: the toilet paper rolled out on one aisle and the boy named Lance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have you heard Steven Yeun sing "You and I Both" because I live for it.  
> I'm happy to see the positive reactions from the first chapter! I tried making this chapter a little longer and added some more dialogue between Keith and Lance.  
> As always, my tumblr is over at generalvogel and I'll be using the tag "fic:everythingvoltron" to keep track of things for this fic  
> Hope you enjoy chapter 2!

“That’ll be be $12.”

“Thanks, sweetie.”

Keith gave the lady a small smile and turned his attention back to his work. It was another slow night. He preoccupied himself by restacking shelves and organizing the old canned food scattered amongst the aisles, but his mind kept drifting off. The radio was on again and Keith quietly sang along to the familiar tune.

 

_ See I'm all about them words _

_ Over numbers, unencumbered numbered words _

_ Hundreds of pages, pages, pages for words _

_ More words than I had ever heard and I feel so alive. _

 

Nights like these could always be pleasant. He had the whole store to himself and sure, he could go home whenever he wanted, really, but there was something there that kept Keith in the same place. He watched cars drive past the shop and never return, their headlights fading into the darkness leading to whatever awaited them beyond the city lines. Keith wanted to travel, truly. He was ready to leave everything behind and find something new. He didn’t attend school, he worked the late shifts of this job to work on his bike and sleep during the day. He had no family and any friends he did have left to find better opportunities. So why was he still here? Well, there was only so far he could go before he would run out of gas, money, or food. He had a stable life here, so for now, the only rational reason would be to stay put. 

It wasn’t all bad though. He got to see an inside view of everyone’s lives when they walked through the door. Keith never really knew why it was so easy to read people- it must be a gift. Even the customer service wasn’t his most favourite thing in the world, it had its moments. 

 

_ And it's okay if you have to go away _

_ Oh just remember the telephone works both ways _

_ And if I never ever hear them ring _

_ If nothing else I'll think the bells inside _

_ Have finally found you someone else and that's okay _

_ Cause I'll remember everything you sang. _

 

The clock read 11:50 PM. Loud popping noises distorted the music, the engine screaming as it’s owner pulled into a parking spot. Keith looked over the rows of shelves to see the same car from yesterday. He should have known it was the disaster itself. The boy pushed through the door, which emitted a shriek as it’s hinges were thrown back into a wide position. 

“Hey!” shouted the boy, waving at Keith as he rushed through the aisles. Keith, being used to this, just went back to examining the same packages of bread that were thrown about the shelves from previous customers. The boy in the next aisle over was shuffling around boxes of cleaning supplies and toilet paper until he grabbed three boxes of washing soda and pushed them onto the counter. Keith noticed the boy waiting impatiently and walked over. 

“Did you find everything okay-- why do you have all of this washing soda?”

“Oh, it’s just stuff…” The boy mumbling, running a hand through his hair. He had a cocky look on his face, but then again it was like that the last time.  _ Maybe his face is just stuck like that _ . 

“‘Just stuff,’ huh?” Keith muttered, scanning the items.  _ First $18 worth of instant coffee and vitamin c, now washing soda? What the hell was this guy thinking? _ “That’s $10.23.” 

The boy slipped his wallet out of his pocket, handed him a $10, and began to viciously type on his phone. _Did he not hear me?_ _Great, now it’s awkward_. 

“It’s $10.23.”

“What? Shit! Sorry!” The boy looked for change in every space from that peeling wallet to every pocket. “I don’t have the extra 23 cents. Can you just take it off for me?” 

“You know what,” Keith sighed, “don’t worry about it.”

“Huh?”

“The 23 cents. Don’t worry about it, it’s cool.”

The boy looked elated. It was almost cute, but Keith would never admit that. He would have to take the money out of his check, but the boy looked like he needed help and Keith felt obligated to help.

“Oh man, thank you so much! This means a lot.”

“Yeah, yeah, it’s no problem. Just take your items.” Keith replied, mindlessly typing on the register to cover the rest of the charge. It wasn’t until the boy was at the door when Keith finally realized that the boy was looking at him.

“Lance.”

“Excuse me?”

“The name’s Lance.” The boy gave Keith a wide grin.

“I’m Keith.”

“Keith.” Lance nodded, a dorky smile still plastered onto his face. Seriously, did it never change? “See ya around then!”

The door closed behind the boy and Keith watched the car sputter away. No one ever asked about him before. What was it about this kid that made him care? There was two things on Keith’s mind now: the toilet paper rolled out on one aisle and the boy named Lance.


	3. A Night Together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When a storm hits, Lance doesn't show up at his usual time. Keith gets worried, but he won't admit that to himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A long chapter this time! Also, sorry for the slight break I took. I went home for the weekend and didn't bring my laptop to write. But to make it up, here's a long chapter full of bonding time!   
> (I didn't proofread this so let's see how that goes)
> 
> As usual, you can find at at generalvogel on tumblr and the "fic:everythingvoltron" tag  
> Enjoy the chapter!

Lance had come back at the same time for the next two days. Keith had begun to expect him to show up, anxiously awaiting the sound of the faulty engine turning into the parking lot. He brought this up to Lance, who just laughed it off.

“My baby’s fine! It’s what makes her special.” 

From Keith’s perspective it was most definitely  _ not _ fine, but what could you do? He learned that the boy went to Altea University and did freelance photography. His parents gave him the car since he lived pretty far, which would explain why it was so old. Or in Lance’s words, “vintage.” He was bilingual, speaking both English and Spanish, and had a really strange love for the Hannah Montana movie. Then again, Keith didn’t know if he was joking or not about that one.

The clock turned to 11:50 PM. Heavy rain hit the windows of the store, a persistent tapping against the glass syncing to the clicking of the clock. Keith leaned against the counter and rested his head on a hand, watching the occasional headlights flash past. He waited for the popping, a smiling face leaning out the window. But nothing ever came.

The clock turned to 12:00 PM. The rain had picked up and lighting stretched across the dark sky. Thunder rolled overhead. Keith had walked back and forth from the backroom, sometimes to check for inventory, sometimes just to stall. He walked over to the refrigerators and took a bottle of coke at one point and it was almost empty now. 

The clock turned to 12:30 PM. Keith was falling asleep against the cash register, white noise emitting from the radio due to the signals being fucked up from the storm. Maybe Lance just got caught in a storm. It happens all the time, so what if he was almost a half hour late. He wasn’t worried.

The clock turned to 1:25 PM. Keith was definitely worried. Why hadn’t he asked for the boy’s number? Because he was at work and it would have been inappropriate to do that. It wasn’t as if his boss would have cared, but he tried to be a decent employee at least. The storm outside was relentless. Water was pouring off the shingles on the roof, making the windows look as if they were being covered by a waterfall. No cars drove by and Keith had long since turned off the radio.  _ Maybe he’s not coming. _ The thought nagged at him like one of the flies around the lights. Lance was different than the other customers. Keith didn’t know exactly what it was, but he enjoyed seeing the boy walk through the doors. But he would never admit that to himself. 

The clock turned to 1:50. Keith had finished locking everything up. Counting all of the money in the register, stacking and organizing every shelf. Now his shift was almost over and he was entirely convinced that Lance was not coming.  _ Who needs him anyway. _ Keith was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn’t hear the knocking on the front doors. He glanced up to see Lance, peering through the window and frantically waving at him. He was  _ soaked _ . Keith jolted out of his seat and ran to the door, letting him in. 

“Where have you been?” Keith pointed at him. Lance laughed as he shook his drenched hair out of his face.

“Wow, did you miss me much?”

“No.”  _ Yes. _

Lance sighed and shrugged his shoulders. “My car broke down a mile out. Then the rain started and I couldn’t get a phone signal, so I figured I would just--”

“Wait, wait- you  _ walked _ here?” Keith stared at him in disbelief. Suddenly everything started to make sense- the reason why he was soaked through his clothes, his being late. “Why didn’t you go home?”

“I wanted to see you again.” Lance smiled at him and shook off his jacket. “I thought you would have missed me.” 

“You’re crazy.” Keith shook his head and started to walk back to the backroom, Lance following behind him. “Now how are you going to get back?”

Lance leaned on the doorframe. “Honestly, I was hoping you had a car.”

“Oh, so I’m only here for free car rides?”

“No, no, no, I didn’t mean it like that! I just wanted to see you again and I would totally pay for gas and--”

“I’m kidding. As if I would make you walk back to your car in an electrical storm.” Keith threw his jacket at Lance and walked past him, shutting the door and headed towards the exit. “Plus you just said that  _ you _ missed  _ me. _ ”

Lance smirked and put on the jacket that was just a bit too small for him. “Wow, the broody mullet can make jokes?”

“I don’t have a mullet.”

The two made their way to Keith’s car that was parked near the back of the store. They were engulfed in a warm blast of air from the vents. Lance put his hands up and sighed. 

“Thank you sweet God who invented heat.”

Keith laughed slightly and starting making his way back to the city. Lance gave him directions to his apartment, which was off a few side roads that were illuminated by only a few streetlights. It wasn’t anything fancy, just a brick, road-home styled building. There were a few flower planters outside some of the windows and a few vines grew along the wall. It was pretty similar to where Keith lived, actually. 

“Do you want to come inside? Wait for the rain to stop?” Keith looked over at Lance, who was still sitting in the passenger seat. “My roommate isn’t home right now, so it’d be okay.”

Keith could have just drove off into the rain, completely denying Lance’s offer and never see him again perhaps. He could have.

“Yeah. Yeah, sure.”

The next thing he knew he was in the middle of this boy’s apartment, both jackets drying by the door and Lance practically skipping over to the kitchen. “Welcome to mi casa!” He exclaimed, arms wide open. 

The apartment was filled with photographs. String stretched across walls, filled with pictures of family and friends, but the ones Keith focused on were those of the night sky. Amongst the bunch of smiling faces were landscapes of the cloud-less expansive night where stars appeared in clusters. They were littered all throughout the blackness, sparkling and shining, making the universe feel so much larger and yet so close. They were beautiful.

“Do you like them?”

“They’re amazing.”

Lance let out a small laugh and it almost seemed as if he were beginning to blush. “I wouldn’t say amazing. I’m still learning how to do all of this stuff.” They stood in front of the picture-made constellations before Lance looked over at Keith. “I can show you my studio if you want.”

Keith looked back at him, confused. “Your studio is in your house?”

“Yeah. The apartment came with a spare room. I took one bedroom and Hunk took the other, so I made the spare into a darkroom. Of course, I didn’t think about the  _ cost _ of all of this, but it’s still something special, to me at least.”

Keith glanced at the other prints hanging on the wall and nodded. “Let’s see it.”

“Besides, it would let you see what I’ve been doing with all that shit I’ve been buying.” 

They entered a small room just off of one of the bedrooms, which Keith presumed to be Lance’s, and Lance immediately shut the door behind Keith. The room was illuminated by a dull red light. It smelled a little weird, almost coffee-like. 

“It’s from the chemicals,” Lance explained. “I didn’t have enough to buy the super expensive chemical equipment since you need so many packets to do a number of things, so I found out how to do it with a bit of coffee and washing soda.”

“And vitamin C?”

“And vitamin C.” Lance laughed and walked over to the few photos that were drying on a rack. They were more photographs of the night sky, but from a very familiar road. In one, Keith realized exactly where they were taken.

“Is that Galra’s?”

“Yeah,” Lance replied. “It had something weird about it and I don’t know… I thought it made for a good photo.” The fluorescents stuck out along the dark road. To Keith, something so average, something he saw every day with no appealing qualities, suddenly looked so beautiful. “Actually, I wanted to ask you something.” Keith looked back at Lance, who was fixing chemicals in little containers. The red light basked across his face, soothing the harsh angles of his face. Lance looked back at him. 

“I have this assignment where I need a model, but I normally prefer to do landscapes, obviously, and I was wondering if you would be a subject for this thing I planned on doing.”

Keith looked back at the set of drying photographs. He wasn’t normally one to be the subject of things, but it felt like he could trust Lance, even if they barely knew each other. 

“I might do it… if I could ask  _ you _ something.”

“Yeah! Sure, anything!”

“Why do you do photography? You don’t look like the type to do this sort of thing.” 

Lance looked down, contemplative of his answer. “I’m not sure… it was something I always liked to do. I have a big family, so I guess I just liked having a reminder that they were there.”

Keith walked over to Lance and looked him in the eye, straining to see through the dim light. “Do you miss them?”

“Hm?”

“Your family.”

Lance let out a breath, smiling slightly. “Of course I do. I mean, we talk on the phone a lot, but that’s not always the same.” He looked back at Keith. “What about you? Do you talk to your family a lot?”

Keith’s face dropped. He awkwardly tugged on his arm, suddenly in a really weird position. The room felt hotter. “I don’t really have--”

“Hey! Hey, don’t worry about it, okay?” Lance’s hand was on his shoulder and he held a concerned look on his face. “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”

Keith nodded, thankful. He didn’t like to talk about his family, or what happened to them. He hadn’t really talked with someone like this in a while, or at all. Keith never held a strong connection with most people. The closest thing he had to a real friend would be Shiro, who he knew for what seemed like forever. But when Shiro left for an exchange program to Kerberos College with his friend Matt, Keith was left here. 

“I’ll help you with that project,” Keith smiled back at him. Maybe this is what he needed all this time- just to spend time with someone. “But no more walking a mile to the store in the rain.” 

Lance let out a loud laugh, shaking his head. “Got it.”

They left the darkroom and noticed that the rain had died down to a slight drizzle. Keith grabbed his now dry jacket off one of the hooks and waved by to Lance, who was now in the kitchen cooking at an ungodly hour. Keith climbed into the front seat and put the keys in the ignition. Warmth once again washed over him, but this time it felt a bit different. Keith looked over to see a small scrap of paper on the passenger seat. He picked it up and unfolded it. There was a number written on it, along with Lance’s name and a doodle of himself. Keith let out a chuckle and threw his head back so it hit the headrest. He stared aimlessly at the roof of the car, before coming back to his senses and driving off.


End file.
